Asian Cup TT: Sreeja Akula falls to World No. 1 Sun Yingsha in straight games

Indian male paddlers had a brilliant second day at the ATTU-ITTF Asian Cup 2025, as all three Indian players in the men's singles category registered their first wins of the tournament in Shenzhen, China, on Thursday.

Meanwhile, India's No.1 Sreeja Akula faced her first defeat of the tournament, losing in straight games (8-11, 10-12, 5-11) to World No.1 Chinese paddler Sun Yingsha.

Three wins for India in Men's singles

After a winless first day, Indian male paddlers started the day on a high as Sharath Kamal registered an easy straight-game win (11-6, 11-4, 11-7) against Ebrahim Gurban of Yemen.

With this win, Sharath's chances of moving to the next round remain alive. However, he must win his final group match against Sara Matsushima of Japan tomorrow.

The other two men's singles players, Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai, followed their senior counterparts and secured hard-fought victories in deciding games.

Manav got the better of Quek Izzac of Singapore (6-11, 11-7, 11-8, 5-11, 11-4) and Harmeet defeated Kirill Gerassimenko of Kazakhstan in an intense match (7-11, 12-10, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9).

Sreeja in the hunt for the knockouts

In the women's singles, Sreeja Akula is still in contention for a place in the knockout stage, despite her loss to Sun Yingsha. She has one win from two group-stage matches.

Sreeja's next match is a must-win encounter against Tung-Chuan Chen of Chinese Taipei tomorrow. The winner will advance to the next round.

On the other hand, experienced paddler Ayhika Mukherjee and rising youngster Yasaswini Ghorpade suffered their second consecutive defeat in the group stage, ending their hopes of making it to the next round.